The ATLAS detector (AToroidal LHC ApparatuS) is the world’s largest general-purpose particle detector, measuring 46 meters long, 25 metres high and 25 meters wide; it weighs 7000 tons and consists of 100 million sensors that measure particles produced in proton-proton collisions in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The first piece of ATLAS was installed in 2003 and since then many detector elements have journeyed down the 100 metre shaft into the ATLAS underground cavern. This last piece (lowered in March 2008) completed this gigantic puzzle.

ATLAS may also provide the answer for the mysterious dark matter and energy of the Universe and look for extra dimensions of spacetime. This detector is designed to be capable of discovering new particles and new phenomena expected from extensions of the Standard Model such as supersymmetry, and to be able to observe the Higgs boson.

If the proposed Higgs field is not the right solution to the mass puzzle, it is expected that the ATLAS experiment will guide us toward the correct answer.